Paramount Sets a Release Date Befitting a Blockbuster for ‘Top Gun 2’

Let me make this perfectly clear: I’m less of a Top Gunfan and more of a fan of putting Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in more blockbuster movies, but the end result is pretty much the same: I am ready for a little Top Gun 2 action. The long-rumored film — or perhaps just long-desired film — was finally confirmed by Cruise earlier this year, and now Paramount Pictures is cranking up the movie-making machine to deliver on the promise of more midair dogfights and subtle homoeroticism. With Cruise back, and Kilmer hopefully soon to follow, this could be the perfect throwback to the heydays of studio filmmaking of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

And Paramount seems to think so too, because they’ve gone ahead and locked themselves into an upcoming release date. Earlier today (via Collider) it was revealed that Top Gun 2 will hit theaters on July 1, 2019, meaning two years from this very date, we’ll get to enjoy Kilmer and Cruise snarling at each other again just in time for the Fourth of July weekend.

Of course, none of this hype will much matter if the film isn’t actually any good, and that’s where Paramount will have to move quickly if it’s going to keep fans appeased. As we noted earlier this year, the rumor mill for the project has director Joseph Kosinski reuniting with his Oblivionlead, but Top Gun 2 has not officially locked in a director and Cruise’s busy production schedule means they need to get this on the calendar sooner rather than later. It remains to be seen if Top Gun 2 is truly still a fan favorite or just an easy punchline on the internet, but I do know this: it’s a Tom Cruise action movie, so I will see it in theaters. I’m not a complicated man and this doesn’t seem like a complicated movie. Win-freaking-win.